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This article is about the Lithuanian citizenship For other uses, see Citizenship (disambiguation).

Lithuanian citizenship is the status of being a Lithunian citizen, this comes together with the rights, duties and privileges of being a citizen. An example of citizenship is someone being born in Lithuania and having access to all the same freedoms and rights as those already living in the EU.

Due to amendments to the citizenship law of Lithuania that came into force on 1st of July, 2016, descendants of Lithuanian citizens that left before 1940, became eligible for dual Lithuanian citizenship again. Until then, the Law on Citizenship allowed dual citizenship only for those who fled Lithuania during its occupation period from 1940 to 1990. Descendants of Lithuanian citizens that left Lithuania prior to 1940 could only get single Lithuanian citizenship and had to renounce their current citizenship. It prevented many people from applying for Lithuanian citizenship.

Application procedure requires having documents proving that you are a direct descendant of Lithuanian citizen.

Eligibility Criteria

The current citizenship law grants the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of Lithuanian citizens whose ancestors left Lithuania prior to 1990 and who became citizens of another country, the right to reclaim Lithuanian citizenship.

Law on Citizenship allows dual citizenship only for those who fled Lithuania during 1940 – 1990 period. Lithuanian citizens (and their descendants) who left Lithuania before 1940, can get only single Lithuanian citizenship and have to renounce their current citizenship.

In addition, because Lithuania became an independent state in 1918, those who left before this year were not Lithuanian citizens and therefore their offspring are not eligible to claim citizenship.

We expect that this situation might change some time in 2019 if referendum is held in Lithuania. If the referendum is successful it is likely that the law will be changed so that anyone that has ancestors that left between 1918 and 1990 will be eligible for dual citizenship (so those that are eligible for single will be eligible for dual).

Spouse Eligibility

After a person gets Lithuanian citizenship, his/her spouse, unfortunately, would not get Lithuanian citizenship automatically. However, if a person move to any EU country his/her spouse would be eligible for residence and work permit and live in the EU together. After living in EU for some time spouse would be able to get permanent residence permit and citizenship eventually. Actual citizenship rules differ from country to country, but for life and work purposes it is enough that one person has Lithuanian citizenship, which allows a person and his/her spouse to live and work anywhere in the EU.

Double Citizenship by Blood & Marriage

Persons, who gained double citizenship (Lithuanian and one of another state) by birth can keep their current citizenship. Until Citizenship law amendment of 2015, persons that acquired double citizenship by birth were required to choose which citizenship their want to keep when they turned 21 years old.

As well as those persons, who gained a foreign citizenship by virtue of marriage to a citizen of a different state.

Soviet Union Case

The descendants of those Lithuanians, who immigrated voluntarily to other republics of the Soviet Union, for example in 1970s because of family or economic reasons, can apply only for a single Lithuanian citizenship. However, if these people were forced to leave, then they are eligible for dual citizenship as well. Persons, who gained double citizenship (Lithuanian and one of another state) by birth can keep their double citizenship. But if they were exiled to Siberia and stayed in Soviet Union, then they can get dual.

Lithuanian Diaspora

Lithuanian immigration has resulted in hundreds of thousands of people with Lithuanian ancestry living outside Lithuania. Large waves of Lithuanian migration occurred during the 19th and 20th century, a large portion of whom were Jewish. Communities in the United States make up the largest part of this diaspora, where as many as one million Americans can claim Lithuanian descent and with the largest concentrations of Lithuanian Americans making their homes in the Great Lakes area and the Northeast. Lithuanian communities in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay also developed before World War II. Many descendants of Lithuanians migrated to Israel, which today has a large Lithuanian/Jewish community.

Because of different time and reasons of immigration, we can say that almost all of Lithuanian Australians can obtain dual citizenship, while we have a mixed picture for Lithuanian Americans, Canadians and Brazilians.

Today as many as 70% of South Africa's Jews trace their descent to Lithuania.

Lithuanian Jews Case

Many Lithuanian Jews immigrated in 1918-1939 period. Even though Lithuania was one of the most tolerant states for Jews in Eastern Europe, economic hardship forced many Lithuanian Jews as well as Lithuanians themselves to emigrate. There were some sporadic cases of anti-Semitism which were usually blocked by state authorities, however mass extermination of Jewish population in Lithuania during the WW2 blurred the picture and it is often perceived that systematic persecution started before the war.

Up until 2014 many Litvak Jews, whose ancestors left before the war obtained double citizenship claiming that their ancestors were persecuted and therefore left. These facts almost always were not possible to back up by documented evidence, but documented proof was not required. After 2014, documented evidence of persecution, of particular individual who left, was required, but essentially impossible, therefore it was considered that Litvak Jews (who left before WW2) were eligible only for single citizenship. After recent amendments, Litvak Jews can get dual citizenship again.

Lithuanian Jews citizenship, whose ancestors fled from the Soviet Union usually can claim that they fled due to persecution, because it is generally accepted that Soviet Regime was oppressive and at least at the moment documented evidence of the persecution is often not required.

Benefits of having Lithuanian citizenship


 * Right to work in EU and EFTA countries


 * Ability to work freely not only in Lithuania, but in 32 countries of EU and EFTA.


 * Right to study in Europe


 * Lithuanian citizenship allows benefiting from a world-class educational system of EU and EFTA. Europe boasts one of the best universities in the world - At the same time university education in many of Western European countries is free or heavily subsidized Student loans for EU students are available in Scandinavia, the UK and other EU countries. Number of grants and scholarships are accessible only to the EU citizens


 * Visa free or visa-on-arrival travel to more than 150 countries With Lithuanian passport you will be able to travel without a visa to almost all European, North and South American countries as well as Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and a number of Asian and African countries. Access to a world class EU healthcare system Being a citizen of the EU country gives an access to a world class health care systems of number of the EU countries free of charge or at highly subsidized rates. Lithuanian and EU citizenship for children Your children will be able to get Lithuanian citizenship by birth or it will be easier for them to seek it later.

Important dates

16 February, 1918 – declaration of independence. Anyone who left before this date and their heirs are not eligible for Lithuanian citizenship. June 15, 1940 – occupation by the Soviet Union. Anyone who was Lithuanian citizen and fled Lithuania during the subsequent occupations by the Soviets and Nazis can gain dual citizenship. March 11, 1990 – Independence of Lithuania is declared. If someone left after this time and acquired citizenship of another state, they cannot regain Lithuanian citizenship.

Adopted Children Case Dual Lithuanian citizenship is given to persons if:


 * He/she is a person is under 21 years of age, provided he/she was adopted by citizen(s) of the Republic of Lithuania before reaching 18 years of age and, as a result of the adoption, acquired citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania pursuant to Paragraph 1 of Article 17 of the Law on Citizenship


 * He/she a person is under 21 years of age, provided he/she, being a citizen of the Republic of Lithuania, was adopted by citizen(s) of another state before reaching 18 years of age and, as a result of the adoption, acquired citizenship of that state.

Case of changing borders

Due to borders change issue, there are some nuances in applying for Lithuanian citizenship. If a person can prove that he/she was born on the territory of present Lithuania then this person will gain Lithuanian citizenship automatically. In case these territories don’t belong to Lithuania nowadays then this person should prove that his/her ancestor had Lithuanian citizenship or served in Lithuanian army.

Lots of people who wanted to gain Lithuanian citizenship by descent seek help through citizenship consultancies like De Civitate Group. Where they help Lithuanian descendants in processing their citizenship.